Of a different kind
by LightTrain
Summary: Max is a Rifleman with dreams to be a pilot, SP is a new experimental titan based off of the failed ARK. Seems fitting that in a Militia pilot hiring spree they meet. But it seems there are other warring factions unbeknownst to the rest of humanity that Max inadvertently stumbles upon. New alliances will be made, along with new enemies. A long winding road is ahead, full of trials.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N. Hey guys! this is my first Titanfall fanfic. Ive been writing this for a few days in my off time, and i hope to maintain a chapter a week upload schedule, but no gurantees. My schools EOC tests start soon and i may be very cought up in studying. Anyways, in this story i want to mention a few small changes to things from average. First off, the Kraber in this will be more like the first one, with a magazine of 5 instead of 4, and titans in general are controlled by keypads and other things unless you are one of the rare people with the nervous system set up just right. Also, titan health systems are different. The shields are actually a third layer of health, and batteries power a second layer of shields, with critical damage permanent until repairs. That is all and please enjoy!**

1800 hours.

Militia Battleship The Red Eye.

A scientist rushes through a metal hallway, almost unapologetic as he accidentally knocks another person down in his rush. He mutters an apology, but doesn't bother to help. He has info for the commander that is of greater importance than helping a perfectly capable human being get back on their feet. Coming up to a heavily guarded door, he flashed his ID at a grunt before busting through the automatic doors. The room he was now in was the main control center of almost every attack the rebellion conducted, a big holo-table in the middle of the room with many people planning and strategizing the resistance's next moves. Around the table, countless operators bustled about, to and from consoles and the end of the room, where the head of it all was.

Commander Briggs was leaning on the railing of an elevated platform, looking out a big glass window into space, looking at the home planet Harmony. Upon noticing a certain scientist rushing towards her, she leaned back and faced him.

"What is in now Dr. Winston? I already approved the funding a month ago. What more do you need?" She asked, slightly tired of the scientists frequent requests.

"I don't need anything this time. I come with great news. We have completed it! It works!" Winston said, taking a moment to breathe and push up his crooked glasses.

The commander looked blankly at him for a second before the meaning dawned on her. "The titan based off the Ark." She asked, not really believing it. Winston nodded, before elaborating.

"We have successfully created a smaller version of the Ark, but what we found out after doing tests on our recreation of Coopers scan, was that the Ark itself was not only a massive powersource, it had something akin to an A.I. in it more complicated than any in known existence. It seemed to be restricted by a couple of things though, it had no means of connecting with the outside world without connections to sensory equipment, and no real means of processing without external hardware. It is basically an almost limitless power source and databank in one. Putting it in a titan would allow the A.I. to see and interact with the world, process it's thoughts, and be used as a force to bring peace upon the frontier. We had to custom make the chassis it is currently implemented in, but the possibilities the miniaturized Ark created were almost endless, and now that we are done, I'd be proud to say she is probably the most versatile and deadly titan in our arsenal. All we need is a pilot." Winston finished, pushing his glasses back up again.

"Wait, the A.I. is a she? And how can we be certain that she won't be able to be used against us?" Briggs asked, eyes narrowing. Winston sighed and sat down in a nearby chair to continue.

"Please, give us more credit than that. We modified her some so that she has a strong moral compass, and we've taught her everything we could about both sides so that she knows which side is morally better. After showing her some footage of what the IMC has done to people and the hardships we've suffered, she wanted to immediately pick up a weapon and fight them. In her words, 'Lemme at 'em!' She has shown responses like that of a human being, and even started developing a personality of her own. But, even if she seems like a perfectly capable artificial intelligence, we still need a pilot that is capable of meeting a few different physical and mental bars. She will require more mental and physical control than other titans. I suggest we start looking for candidates." Winston sat back in the chair, relaxing while Briggs thought it over.

"Alright, I'll start screening the militia for pilots and get back to you with the best options. And start her on training and drills. If she is like a human, I don't want her unprepared for battle."

* * *

800 hours

Militia Barracks

Max sat on his bed, tying the laces on his boots in preparation for the day's numerous drills, exercises, and activities. He was around 5'8 with medium brown hair, and stormy gray eyes, wearing the militia's standard orange and dark gray uniform. He finished up his last boot and stood up, heading to the cafeteria for breakfast and the morning brief with about ten other grunts. In truth, he and the others hated being called grunts rather than the proper term, riflemen, but it was the truth. They were the grunts of the war. Doing the dirty work, a dime a dozen, and expendable. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered sticking around, most likely waiting for his own death. It was very rare that anyone was good enough to be promoted from rifleman to a pilot, but yet he still hoped he could prove his worth to the militia, and be a key member in finally bringing peace to the frontier, ending the IMC's raids and it's twisted version of justice.

Before he could continue his daydreaming though, a hand laid on his shoulder and held him back from walking straight into a pole in the middle of the doorway to the cafeteria. A nearby group of grunts burst out laughing at the close call. Sending a glare at the laughing group, he turned around to face his best friend and savior, Jax. He was slightly shorter than Max, with wild black hair, green eyes, tan skin, and his ever present smirk evident on his lips.

"Daydreaming again are we? What was it this time? Getting that girl back on Harmony? Oh oh oh, wait. Let me guess. It was your impossible dream of becoming a pilot again, wasn't it?" Jax teased, causing Max to groan.

"First of, it's not impossible, secondly, aren't friends supposed to be supportive of other friends?" Max asked, frowning at Jax's antics. Jax just smiled back and shrugged.

"Sure, but where is the fun in that? I wouldn't be the ball of fun I am today if I just supported everyone that had a dream." Jax retorted, dramatically putting a hand to his chest. Max smiled and slugged Jax's shoulder, chuckling.

"Come on man. Rumors have it something big happened higher up and they're going to announce it today. Don't wanna miss that." Max told him, grabbing a tray before going through the line. Jax followed, and after getting some good old fashioned bacon and eggs, they sat at a table near the usual morning announcement wall. That was another benefit of the militia over the IMC, we had home grown, home cooked food. Not those bland protein packets. He slid down next to the rest of his squad of riflemen, some were bantering back and forth before a group noticed them.

"Well, look who it is boys, the cereal bros!" One grunt jeered, causing most of the table to look up and chuckle. Max just grinned before reaching over and socking the grunt in the arm.

"Careful Jake, next thing you know and you'll be eating those words. Remember what happened to Brian when he called me out?" Max retorted, causing Jake to shudder.

"No thanks man, you keep doing you." Jake replied before stuffing some bacon in his mouth. Max responded in kind, starting on his eggs. Jax slid opposite of Max before grabbing the salt and pepper from further down the table. They all started casually conversing about different things, jokes were thrown, scalding burns were received, and all in all a pretty normal morning. Soon the morning klaxon sounded, and almost everyone looked up to the TVs mounted all over the far wall. They flickered to life, showcasing a combined background of the MCOR and the Militia's logos before showing a woman in armor and a red bandana standing in front of the logos. It was Sarah Briggs, the commander of the Militia. She stood tall with a proud light in her eyes, looking from side to side as if she could see the entire mess hall before addressing us.

"I have a major announcement for a lot of you today. In light of recent events, it has come to my attention we have more titans than pilots. During the time after Demeter was destroyed, we have been able to ramp up our production so much that we can build three titans in the time it takes for one to fall. We will be screening every volunteer of whom wish to become a pilot within the next 96 hours. Our hope is for a new generation of titan pilots to arise who will help us secure more and more victories from the IMC as we chase them back to the core worlds. Screening will begin at 1000 hours. Make me proud. Sarah out." The screens faded to black before switching off.

Max could hardly believe his ears. He was still staring at the blank screens, almost willing them to come back and confirm what they just announced. He didn't even notice his friend calling his name until someone flicked a piece of scrambled eggs at his face. He snapped back to reality, wiping the egg of furiously while Jax and half of the table laughed at him.

"Very funny Jax. But still, I told you it wasn't impossible! Now I jet to jump kick your ass for saying it!" Max said, kicking him in the kneecap under the table. Jax still laughed.

"Not if I pass and you don't!" Jax said before the entire table conversation burst into who could pass pilot sims and whoop the other's ass. It would've continued on had the breakfast end klaxon sounded. Only one hour until I can try out. Thought Max, heading towards the training center. Normally the practice area in the ship held obstacle courses, firing ranges, and a weight room, but now one of the firing ranges had been converted into an area for the sim pods. Four rows of seven sat, doors open and condensation drifting off the computer cooling units. Max stopped to look at them for a minute. Only one more hour…. He sighed and grabbed a DMR off the rack next to a shooting range.

* * *

Militia Headquarters on Harmony

0924 hours

Briggs clomped down the hallway, a small team of scientists behind her, exchanging notes and tapping away at datapads. She stopped at a far doorway before swiping a security card over a lock and walking inside. This new room was similar to that of a hangar, a retractable door to the rest of the world on one side, and lots of MARVIN units working around many titan chassis and the rest of the hangar, but that's not what she was here for. She spotted it in the corner of the room, next to the retractable doors, a gaggle of scientists and grease monkeys either arguing, working, or sitting around using datapads. In the center of it all was a bigger than average titan. It looked like an Ion chassi, but with lots of modifications around it's back and thinner less armored limbs. It's single eye swiveled around, watching some smaller humans work while the smaller optics studied others. The titan was colored an almost silver shade of grey with dark orange accents along some of its moving parts, wires and creases. On it's back were two laser launchers, two acolyte pods, and four thrusters. Its limbs were longer than normal, with two more small thrusters on it's heels. A heavily modified splitter rifle and sword were sitting against the wall next to it. Briggs started walking over, noticing that the modified Ion had started to face her, optics shuttering before focusing in on her. Briggs walked up the rest of the way before she was intercepted by Winston, whom she had come to see.

"There you are Briggs." Winston said before grabbing her arm and leading her over to the titan. "This is her, SP-13124. She hasn't chosen a name yet so we call her SP." Winston finally stopped at the feet of the machine. It was there she finally realized how big the modified ion was.

"How much taller is this over a normal titan?" Briggs asked, craning her neck to look the titan in her optic.

"She is currently around ten feet taller than an average titan, due to the massive amount of energy converters and computer bays we had to put in. Upon tests, she has actually performed better than any auto titan or record. Say hello SP." Winston told her.

"Hello Winston. Who is your guest?" The titan asked. Her optics brightening and dimming to her speech.

"Oh! I forgot to tell you about her. SP, this is Commander Sarah Briggs of the militia. The very founder of the fight against the IMC." Winston explained as he quickly wrote something down on another computer. The ion seemed to lean back some, as if taken aback by the announcement.

"You're the Commander?" She asked, seeming to brighten in mood. "I'm so honored to meet you! Will I be getting a pilot soon? Can I fight soon? I am willing to whenever you need me. Did I mention I want to fight?" SP asked, hands coming together in a hopeful manner. Briggs smiled before shaking her head.

"You will be able to fight in a week or so, and hopefully you will have a pilot within the next few days, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. True, it's nice to see people willing to fight, but don't let that affect you much on the battlefield. Some people get too excited and end up dead faster than you can say eager beaver. Remember to take your time in thinking things through before acting, and you may just get out ok." Briggs told her before Winston came back over with a datapad.

"Now I assumed you wanted a rundown of her abilities and weapons, so this is a list of the stats, but I assumed you would want a more verbal explanation, so I'm going to give you an overview of her." Winston paused to gather his thoughts. "She is a modified custom built Ion for handling and using the energy, but since one of the most true classic phrases is that the air is the safest place in a war, we have made her capable of flying around with those movable jets on her back and heels. Now you may notice the abnormally less armored limbs, but that's because of weight and mobility. Her chassi can take quite a few hits, but her limbs can't. Don't worry much though, we have plenty of spares. Her main weapons are designed for long range and close quarters, with the modified splitter rifle acting as a sniper, and the sword for melee engagement. The two laser launchers on her back are for anti missile defense and precision shots, while the two acolyte pods are designed for bombing runs on enemy forces. The energy based weapons will never need to reload because they feed directly off of the Ark, but she can only carry four missile payloads. Her core ability is similar to the Ion's normal laser core, except it's more powerful and lasts shorter. That's about it besides what you already know." Winston finished, taking a second to drink some nearby water. Briggs crossed her arms and put a hand to her chin, thinking while looking over the titan again.

"And in the case of when she is being targeted, does she have shields? And if she does get to critical damage, is she recoverable?" Briggs asked, turning to Winston.

"She does indeed have shields, but due to the lack of internal space, they are weaker than normal, but almost instantly recharge to full after three seconds of not taking damage. If she gets destroyed, inside the cockpit the ark will pop out into the lap of the pilot and the main optic will open and produce a standard SERE kit." Winston finished, looking back at Briggs for feedback. She raised an eyebrow before patting him on his back.

"I'd say you've outdone yourself Harold. Good job. Contact me when they've found a pilot." Briggs said before walking off.

* * *

1023 hours

Screening center

Max waited anxiously in line as others were in pods or watching others performance from a screen next to each one. Taking a breath to calm his slightly shaking hands, he counted the line ahead of him again. _Only three more people…_ thought Max as one person got out of a pod and another went in. Soon there was a big wave of people finishing, and Max was next in line for a pod. After a few minutes, a pod towards the far right opened up, it's occupant finished.

Almost trembling with excitement, Max walked over to the pod manager before being beckoned inside it. Gripping the side of the pod, he squeezed in before sitting down in the chair. The pod doors closed, leaving him in darkness. Two mechanical arms came out from behind him and pinched a few nerves, rendering him in a state of paralysis while another came directly behind his neck to read his spinal nerves. Green lights flooded the pod before he found himself in a tile floored area, stone brick walls, open roof, and a pistol in his hand. He was facing a long corridor with a few beams going over the floor to act as obstacles he guessed. Starting forwards, he got a running start towards the beam.

"Jumpkit assist enabled." said a bored sounding voice. Before Max could understand what it meant though, his attempt at a hurdle over the wall sent him flying into the left wall. Standing up, he realized he now had a jumpkit on his back. Brushing off his surprise, he proceeded to jump over the wall correctly now, much higher than average. Starting to grow confident, Max continued to run before double jumping the next two. After passing the next two bars, the open topped hallway smoothed out before a curve up ahead.

"Try sliding on your pads." The bored voice announced. Max shrugged before running and sliding on the backs of his legs, almost laughing at how far he slid. Repeating it, he came upon the curve. It wasn't really a curve so much as an exit to a much larger space. The world out here had floating rocks with cherry blossom trees and grass, covered by a lot of fog. The platform he was now on was joined with other platforms and a wall, seemingly floating in the air. Max couldn't admire it much though, since the voice spoke again.

"Wallrun off the wall and onto the other platform." It said. Taking a deep breath, he holstered the pistol before running at the wall. Jumping, he almost lost his grip against the wall, but the jumpkit thruster provided him with a steady support against the it. Almost tripping on his own feet, he still managed to make it to the other side with meters to spare. Up next was a wall of weapons and what looked like a shooting range made out of the same brownish bricks the first hallway was made up of. Walking over to the wall, Max grabbed a DMR off the wall before noticing something further up. The Kraber! He loved that gun. Only problem was that it was the most powerful weapon available, meaning it was harder to find and use on field, so he never got to use it much, but when he did use the Kraber, he used the Kraber. Stowing the DMR on his back for the moment, He jumped up and snagged the Kraber off the top rack. Hefting it in his hands, he walked over to the range.

"Shoot all five targets the most accurate you can with both weapons." He was instructed. Shouldering the Kraber, he quickly aimed down the scope and shot all five targets in quick succession. Five shells hit the floor, and five bullseyes were hit. Little did he know though, a small crowd was starting to watch his trial from outside the pod. Switching his Kraber for the DMR, he once again took aim, making each bullseye faster with its semi automatic. Walking over to what he assumed was the exit, he was greeted with a wide open plain.

"Call in a titan using your tac-pad." The bored voice droned. Max visibly straightened up though before looking at his tac pad. Six titans versions were there, he just had to pick one. He hovered over a few before deciding to pick a jack of all trades titan. The Ion. A marker appeared on his hud, showing the words Titanfall and a countdown. Hearing a roaring noise, he looked up to find a blazing object falling to the planet before landing in a giant crash of shifted dirt and smoke. A light started to shine through the smoke, focusing on him. As the smoke cleared, he saw the metal giant standing before him.

"Holy crap." Was all he could say. He had always fought against and alongside titans, but he was hit with the new meaning of piloting one of these. Walking up to it, the Ion leaned down and opened its cockpit, one massive hand acting as a step into it. Taking a deep breath, he hoisted himself up and into it, the cockpit closing and he felt the machine standing back up. The panels in front of him shifted into a view of the area in front of him. Similarly to the sim pod, he was rendered immobile while another scanner was pressed up against his neck. Trying to move his left arm, he was greeted with the titan's left arm moving instead. Practicing movements, he took a slow step forwards, surprised he could feel it in his feet some. Putting his left hand back under the gun, he felt the contact. Taking a few seconds to move each limb and get used to the titan, he was kind of stumped on how to use the laser pod.

"Hey, uhh, whoever manages this, how do you use the laser pod?" He asked through the titans speakers. A deep sigh was heard before an answer.

"Press the red button next to the keypad." The bored announcer voiced. Max thought about it for a few seconds. He couldn't press it while in control of the titan.

"I can't actually do that. Whenever I move, the titan moves. I can't move anything inside the cockpit besides my mouth." Max stated, looking at the sky irritatedly.

"Ohhh, you must be one of those rare people able to control them better. In that case, any pods on the back of the titan is like an extra limb. You'll find it, just try to move stuff near your shoulder blade and it'll reveal itself." Max was told. Taking his advice, he mentally focused on his back, feeling a slight something there. Sending random signals to it, he felt the pod moving some on his back. With some practice, he was finally able to move it over his shoulder and into his view. Quite on accident, he triggered the laser, creating a small blackened crater in the ground and a startled titan.

"Alright looks like you've got it all down. Time for combat!" The voice said smugly. All of a sudden, buildings rose from the ground and a fence enclosed the area.

"Hostile titans inbound." Said his Ion. Not two seconds later, a missile narrowly missed him. Taking cover behind a building, he peeked out to see what he was dealing with. A tone class titan was advancing on his position, white paint glowing in the sun. Leaning out of cover, he laid down a stream of ionized particles that started to shred the tones shields. Ducking under a shell that was shot, he retaliated by firing his laser. It wasn't very accurate because he needed practice, but it still got the job done as the tone's health was reduced to half. Ducking back into cover, the splitter rifle ejected it's now spent cartridge with a hiss of coolant. Grabbing another off the titans side, the rifle accepted the cartridge and twisted in. Switching a lever on the side of the weapon to triple shot, Max rounded the corner once more, prepared to take down the tone, but when he looked it wasn't there.

A familiar tingle on the back of his neck occurred, and he whipped around, bringing his fist straight into the tones optic, sending it flying back into the fence wall. Wasting no time, he ran over to the tone before it could get up, punched it again, and ripped open the cockpit, revealing a very startled pilot. He shoved the barrel of the gun inside before shredding through the pilot and the back of the titan. Removing the gun, he turned his back on it before coming to face two ronin titans.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me." He said, slumping the Ions shoulders before holstering his splitter rifle. "How's about a good old round of fight club?" He voiced. Surprisingly, the Roni took the challenge, drawing their swords.

"Laser core ready" his titan announced. A wicked grin came to his face before he activated the core, sending a massive energy wave at the first Ronin, melting straight through it's sword and cockpit. The core finished, and now it was just him and the last ronin. It charged at him, intending to impale him against the wall, but Max wouldn't give him the satisfaction. He waited until it was almost at him before reaching out, and shoving the sword upwards, unsettling the ronin and causing it to fall on its back, letting go of the sword. It then fell back to earth and impaled itself in the ground. Making a break for the sword, he grabbed its hilt before pulling it out.

Turning around, he just barely had time to throw up his vortex shield, catching the shotgun blasts from the Ronins lead wall. After a few more shots, the ronin ran out of ammo, and I let go of the decaying shield, throwing the blasts back at it. It stumbled for a second, shields failing. Taking a running start, Max held the sword high, intending to cut the ronin a new one, but it phase shifted at the last moment, kicking Max from behind. Spinning back around, he caught the Ronins fist mid strike, and held it in place, using the laser launcher to shoot the Ronins leg at the joint. Letting go of the ronin, it stumbled back, trying to get away, but Max wouldn't let it. Taking a sword stance, he ran at it again, this time successfully knocking it down before impaling it through the cockpit.

Pulling the sword out with a giant metal screech, Max held it up high like a trophy. His first titan battle. He barely had time to relish it though, since he got pulled out. The world flashing a bright white before disappearing to the black of the sim pod. Finding he could move again, he pulled the top lever in the pod, opening the doors with a hiss and a cheering crowd outside of it. He couldn't help but smile and wave as he got his bearings.

"Did I do good?" Max jokingly asked, causing most to laugh. He got fully out of the pod and stretched his legs and back. It was going to be a good day for him. -

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	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys! So I doubt anyone has noticed, but there is a secret in SP's designation. See if you can find it!**

2245 hours

The Red Eye

Briggs sat at her desk, feet kicked up on the cool metal surface, datapad in hand. Winston had forwarded her a long list of candidates to choose from, fruits of the new screening. Letting out a low whistle as she saw how many there were. Almost 250 candidates. She was going to be here for a while unless she narrowed it down. Starting on the list top down, she took a look at the candidates backgrounds, how well they did, and their experience. Any and all ex-IMC she didn't trust because they could very well be spies, and anyone that was just here for a paycheck was obviously susceptible to bribes and going turncoat. Taking a sip from her coffee mug, she narrowed the list again, leaving people with only the highest scores remaining. Only 48 candidates left. That was a list she could use. Opening the first one, she read quietly to herself.

"Rifleman John Caldwell, score 4.1. Joined two months ago. Rescued from IMC raided settlement. Under investigation for use of substances. Nope." She muttered to herself. "Rifleman John Deric, score 3.7. Joined one year ago. Joined after Militia evacuated settlement. Only 17 years old." Briggs continued before doing a double take. "Only 17!? He shouldn't be allowed in the service! Pass on that." Going back to the list, she saw one about seven down with a star next to it. She shrugged, deciding that she'd get to it eventually.

"Next one. Rifleman John Hardin. Jesus, how many Johns do we have?" She asked herself, squinting at a nearby plaque of the top pilots, where it hit her that at least a third of the top hundred pilots were Johns. Shaking it off, she turned back to the list, looking at the next candidate. "Jake Seagate, score 4.3. Joined when stuck between jail or frontier work. Not a good candidate." Criminals often looked out for themselves and not others, not a good trait in war. "Next one…." Briggs said in a sigh.

"Jax Rutledge, score 3.6. Joined after colony was destroyed in IMC attack. Very jokey attitude." Briggs made a note next to him on the list to come back to later. Next up was the starred listing. "Rifleman Max Fawkes, score 4.9? Wow." Stated Briggs. It was very rare that anybody got above a 4.5 in simulations. Deciding to read more into it, she opened up his full file, storm gray eyes with a tinge of blue looking back at her in his profile picture, slight smile tugging at his lips. To the right and bottom of the picture was his info.

"Joined three years ago after losing home against an IMC resource capture force. Managed to escape capture and take half of the resource squad down by rigging a titan to blow. Clever boy." Briggs was about to mark him and get on with it, but she saw something a bit lower that caused her to choke on her coffee. After a quick coughing fit, she managed to collect herself and reread the bottom text to confirm what she saw.

"Proven Mechanist nervous system." She read aloud. How long had it been since the last Mechanist had been discovered? They were very rare, with the ability to control a titan as their own body and feel through it. They were what titans were made to be controlled by. The OG titan pilots. Quickly setting up a video call on her desk computer to Winston, she reviewed more of the file as it rang. She was going to need to familiarize herself with every aspect of him since he was most definitely going to be invaluable. The vidcall chimed and a holographic image of him was superimposed on the table.

"Hello Commander, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Winston asked, setting down a datapad on a table next to him. "Winston, I think we've found our new pilot." Briggs said, grin evident on her face.

* * *

0932 hours

Militia training grounds

Max decided to take a break from lifting the weights on the bench, setting the 200 pound bar back on the holding rack. Sliding off from the bench, he took a swig of water from his canteen before noticing a few people making their way towards the center of the room. Two pilots decked out in gear and a man in Militia dress uniform. _Maybe they're here to announce the screening results?_ Though Max. It had been at least two days since the screening had finished.

The group stopped in the middle of the training hall before the man in dress clacked his heels together, a noise that somehow demanded attention, people stopping what they were doing to watch. Almost everyone was looking except that one person in the back on treadmills listening to music. Thankfully a nearby soldier flicked his earbud, causing the man to turn around and realize what was going on. The man in the center cleared his throat before starting.

"To all Militia personnel, upon review, many of you have proven worthy of the promotion to pilot. A list of those promoted is posted in the mess hall. However, I am not here for such a trivial announcement. Would Rifleman Max Fawkes step forward please." He asked. Max looked left to right, noticing the rest of the room turn to look at him. Now very uncomfortable he took a few cautionary steps forward, making his way to the edge of the crowd. He walked all the way to the front of the man after being beckoned forth. Max stood straight and saluted him, standing at attention.

"Name and rank private." The man asked.

"Rifleman Max Fawkes, 3rd Militia infantry division, Sir!" Max stated. The man smiled. "I'm afraid you will be a rifleman no longer." The man stated. Max started internally panicking. _Did I do something wrong? What does he.._ "Instead, you are hereby promoted to pilot, and will be participating in a brand new experimental titan project, called Arkine, for your exemplar skills in the simulations." The man stated, giving him a brand new lapel pin and uniform patch of a capital white A with a titan silhouette acting as the space under it, with a flying star trail making the middle line. Max gingerly took the pair before saluting once more.

"Thank you sir!" Max had truly no idea what to think though. He was going to be part of a new titan project, that much he knew, but he never would've thought he'd actually be a part of something big. Sure he had dreams, but it doesn't mean he believed he could accomplish them. His mind boggled at the implications, and he almost didn't realize that the man had started talking again.

"At 0900 hours tomorrow, you will be in full dress uniform for pickup and transport to Harmony to meet your new titan and begin pilot training. Any questions?" The man asked. Max had many questions, so many questions, like Why me? What is this new program? What is this going to be like?

"No sir." Max answered. He knew he could find out later, and asking questions might make him look bad. The trio saluted again, and Max returned it as they walked away towards the goblin bay. Most of the people in the room went back to what they were doing, but max just stood there for a while, staring at the new pin and patch. A hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his stupor and back to reality, Jax was standing there, hand on his shoulder and a smirk on his face.

"Toldja you didn't need any support from me. Good luck out there bro, you get to fight with the best of them. Drinks on me tonight man, you better be there. It'll be a farewell party." Jax started walking away, but turned around as he was. "Be sure to send me some cool souvenirs when you get done with each battle huh? And I wanna hear the stories behind them to brag to me mates 'aight bro?" He requested. Max nodded, a slight upward tug of his lips as he saw Jax was about to walk into a pole. Jax clenched a fist brought it down in a 'Yuss' sort of way before turning around smack into a support pole. Half the room that saw it burst into laughter as Max walked over and helped his fallen friend.

"Should've watched where you were going bro. I won't always be there to save your hyper ass. You'd make a great stim pilot y'know, bouncing off buildings like a squirrel on a pack of energy drinks. But then you'd be a prime target because you'd be so annoying. In fact, why don't you sign up to be a distraction for the rest of them? It'd be perfect!" Max asked, earning a glare then thoughtful pause from Jax.

"Hey, y'know that's not actually a bad idea. Run around with a megaphone and SMG, harass the enemy and allow our pilots to get the drop while their focus is on me. Thanks bro! Now all I need to do is get uploaded and have an army of me's at the ready to annoy the crap out of the IMC if I get shot down by a lucky guy." Jax said, goofy grin back on his face. Max chuckled and patted Jax on the back. "I'll be sure to come by every so often and see how you've been doing, and you had better be alive for those. Who knows, maybe we'll even be in a couple of battles together at some point." Max shrugged.

"We will see" Jax said. We will see… Max thought. Only time will tell. Now the only thing that he had to worry about was _when the hell did grunts get dress uniforms?!_

* * *

0836 hours

Militia barracks

After finding out from his captain, he was now in what was considered dress uniform. A grunt's dress uniform was little more than combat gear without the helmet and pouches. Max practiced his aim near the end of the training room, opting to not get his 'uniform' sweaty and dirty. Instead, he was wielding a Hammond pistol, taking pot shots at a wooden target the furthest distance down the range. A small group was watching, and a couple had started a betting pool on whether or not he would make the shot.

Breathe in, breathe out. That was one of the keys to a steady shot. Finger now on the trigger, Max took one last breath before emptying his lung. Now. thought Max. The pistol cracked in his hands, pushing his hands upward as the upper half ejected an energy casing and slid a new one in before his wrist steadied it again. Wasting no time, Max took the rest of the shots after each breath, casings hitting the floor next to him in a steady plink. Once the magazine ran dry, he relaxed and let the pistol fall to his side. Taking a look at the target, he saw the bullseye and the ring around it had been hit, but none strayed from that mark. One soldier clapped behind him, before a couple more joined them. Turning around, he saw most of the crowd had impressed expressions, but the one running the bets looked a bit sour. They probably bet more than the gambler wanted to pay back.

Max bowed to them before taking the magazine out and setting the Hammond back on the table. Checking the time, he started to make his way towards the hangar, grabbing his duffel on the way. Slapping the new Arkine patch on his shoulder, he unzipped part of the bag, checking again if he had everything. Datapad, check, clothes, check, old War ammo, check, really old dual beretta 92FS combo and an AKM, check. Those were few things he would never get rid of. Those weapons were the most reliable pieces of weaponry he had ever used. They were heirlooms from an older age, but even so, they had both the roar, power, and reliability that rivaled the current weapons. Benefit was they were purely mechanical as well. They didn't require fancy techies to replace parts and be fixed. Even if ammo was scarce now, all it took was a fabricator to replicate the old ammo. The way those guns worked were simple, and Max liked that. If needed, he could just strip the weapon down, clean it, adjust a part, and reassemble it, and it would work better than before. Even if they could jam, they almost never did as long as you kept them in good care like he did.

He had planned on using them in the battlefield some, but he didn't really want them to get damaged at all. Now they were decorative, but fully functional reminders of an age of simplicity he used to hang above his bed. The older age of ballistics was becoming a lost art. Now that every gun in the militia and the IMC's arsenal required energy to function, Max didn't want to rely on them. Sure, in main combat he would use the weapons, yeah, but these were always his fallback plan in case they were short of energy. Zipping the bag back up, he continued to the hangar. It was now 8:56 aboard the ship, and Max was ready for his new job.

A few goblins flew into the hangar and back out into space, but it was one in particular that Max was waiting for. A red colored goblin flew in, taking a much more prominent docking space in the middle of the hangar. This was who he was waiting for. A few people in suits alongside a guard of pilots exited from the doors on the sides that opened up. Max walked over to the incoming group, stopping just before them. They were comprised of five people, three suits in the center and two pilots on the edges. Both Max and the group saluted each other before the man in the center spoke to him.

"Pilot Max Fawkes I presume? You are to accompany us to Harmony to begin elite pilot training. Are you ready to go?" The man asked, Max took a deep breath before answering. This was going to be the beginning of his new life filled with more danger, more experience, and more potential to do something great. Was he ready?

"Absolutely." Max answered.

 **A/N: So, if you want an idea for Max's dual berettas, they have the minimal wear contractor skin on from CSGO.**


	3. Not dead!

**A/N: Sorry for the wait, this is mostly a filler to show i haven't given up yet. I will try to be writing more for this story soon, but I've been crazy busy with trips recently and recently taking in a baby Anole lizard I found on my kitchen floor as a pet. But enough about me, time for the story.**

1427 hours

Militia headquarters

Harmony

SP sat in her usual place in the hangar, not really paying attention to anything in particular except her scanners. She was too excited to care about the bickering beneath her, she was focused on when the new pilot was supposed to arrive. She had been scanning for inbound dropships for the past hour after she got news that her new pilot would be meeting her today. She had even gone about choosing a name for herself. After a lot of debate and internet searches, she came up with a unique one.

"Sitara, have you even been listening to me?" Someone asked, causing her to look down at the speaker

"Sorry Winston, I just can't wait!" She said happily. Winston sighed and pushed his glasses back up.

"As I was saying, it's been confirmed, your new pilot is only a few minutes out. I have a few things like his name if you want to know." Winston said. Sitara thought about it but shook her optic

"Nah. I wanna meet him normally." She answered. Sitara had been waiting for this moment ever since she learned of her purpose. She wanted to meet him herself and get a first impression before she read his file.

"Well do you wanna come down to the hangar and meet him when he arrives?" Winston asked. Sitara didn't even need to think about it.

"Yeah. Which bay will he arrive in?" She asked, standing upright and unplugging some of the monitoring equipment from her chassi.

"In bay 24-J. I'll lead you to it.

"That's alright, I can just fly there after all."

"Sitara, we've been over this. You can't fly here unless it's a test and we've verified there are no IMC spy satellites are here. You know what will happen when word gets out about you. We need to keep you secret until we can deploy you and your new pilot in battle."

"What does it matter, it only takes about two weeks for the pilot to get set up with me." Sitara said while shrugging.

"But he's also green. Even though he scored one of the highest grades possible, he needs training, and it's best to start from the ground up based on piloting you. It could take a few months. Time best spent avoiding the IMC's eyes so they can't build countermeasures against you."

Sitara sighed in resignation, shoulders slumping."Fine, I'll play by the rules for now, but we need to get in the fight soon."

"I can't say we don't, but if he picks it up quick enough, we may be able to sooner. But until we can do something, just follow me to the hangar and we'll wait for him."

They didn't have to wait long though, because just after they arrived at the lengthy hangar the dropship came into view. The grey craft flew towards the landing platform before sliding over it with it's side facing them. The engines hissed as they angled down and slowed the craft's touchdown. After the heavy clunk signified its contact, the engines let out a dying whine before cutting out.

The side doors hissed before sliding upwards, showcasing a few people in dress uniform and one that was obviously out of place from the rest of the suits. _This must be him_ Sitara thought. As they filed out of the ship, some giving obvious glances at her, not that she cared. She was focused on him. He walked down with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder and a slight grin on his face. His grayish blue eyes immediately went to her, and for the first time they met.

"Sup?" Max asked, grin widening. Looking at her new pilot, Sitara just couldn't help a mental smile forming.


	4. A new foe?

**A/N: I've changed a few small things since the last chapter to make it fit in better. First of all, in the world of Titanfall, the militias on both sides are run more like a military. Supplies need to be transported around the fleet, etc, etc. Also, disregard the skin I said the Beretta's looked like earlier i just got a pair of brand new ventilators in CSGO and those will be the new versions because it's THE FUTURE and that other skin was kinda crappy. Also, I'm thinking of changing the AK in the story to a Scar-20 to keep with the sniper personality, but you guys can decide that. Enough chit chat! Time for War!**

0827

Dropship A-856

Mission: Insertion on Planet Troy for Recon and Exploration.

The custom Arkine drop ship was better than most drop ships Max reckoned, it had actual padded seats rather than sitting on iron. Sitara was held in place to his left in the extended bay area that could hold two titans and their armaments. Her optic was gazing out one of the side windows into the void of space, currently warping it's way around the craft as it hurdled towards it's destination. Unconsciously, max checked his weapons and ammo again. They had told him he shouldn't need them, but it wasn't as if Max would ever leave them behind. They were warping to an IMC occupied planet, Troy. True it was just the small colony, but the IMC recently took hold of it and probably wouldn't take kindly to Militia pilots snooping around their planet. Hopefully by flying they'd avoid any conflict with the forces below. This was also Max and Sitara's first non-training mission. Sitara had been almost ecstatic that they would finally be able to get out and do a real mission earlier, but she had been quiet since the warp started.

"Something up Sitara?" Max asked her while he field stripped and cleaned his new custom Kraber. Sitara gazed out the window a little longer before shifting her optic towards him.

"I can't help but think of what might happen if something goes wrong here. True the danger should be low, but I have a nagging feeling something will happen." She said. Her optic twisted once before returning to the window.

"Well don't worry. Returning to the field gives me some anxiety as well, but it should be nothing. This is just a simple charting mission. If anything goes wrong they can pull us out easy. We just take some time to look around and scout points of interest and help map the world for the Militia; we shouldn't even be close to the IMC." Max reassured. He finished polishing the inner barrel of the Kraber and pushed a button on the side, causing the gun to maglock into assembly. Sliding the Kraber over his back, the magnets on his armor grabbed hold and he was allowed to focus on his sidearm, a B3 Elite. It had been a gift from Jax at the farewell party. He wouldn't tell him where he got it from but from his smug expression and the news that one of the Captains quarters had been broken into it didn't take much to put two and two together.

 _"E.T.A. 50 seconds."_ The P.A. system droned. Max holstered the wingman before slipping on his helmet. He was using a special kit that had both grapple kit and cloak kit combined. His two personal favorites. The camera arm on his back was also no ordinary cloaking aid. It also acted as a spotter for him when he was sniping by painting targets on his HUD and alerting him of counter snipers. He found it very handy from far positions. Pressing a few buttons on the side of his helmet, soon he navigated to where he wanted to be. His music. He booted up his usual playlist and got up from his seat. The sounds of electronica soon filled his ears. Old or not, they never made songs like they used to. Max checked over his gear before confirming everything was okay. Max took a running start before jumping onto Sitara's arm and clambering his way up to her cockpit. Sitara absentmindedly opened it up and allowed him to climb inside before closing it back. Max took his Kraber off his back and set it to his right in a special clamp for Titanfall and strapped in.

 _"Standby for flyby insertion."_ The P.A. system announced. Max took a breath and watched out the optics display as the ship exited warp on the planet Troy. An overhead light flashed red before turning green, simultaneously releasing Sitara and opening the bay doors beneath her. For a few seconds the world went into free fall, but two seconds later, Sitara was in control and had slowed their decent to a stop right above the treetops.

"Alright, remind me again the things we are looking for?" Max asked.

"Unwanted IMC presence, potential outpost locations, and anomalies." Sitara replied.

"Alright, how long do we have here before pickup?" Max asked.

"Aproximatley 48 hours, but communications will be cut off durning the night since a previously unseen solar storm will hit the planet." Sitara reported. Max frowned slightly, but shook it off and took control of the ion chassis, starting a routine recon pattern while scanning the area.

"Hopefully this trip remains uneventful, because that might prove very problematic if we run into trouble later. Your systems are rated to function through a solar storm, right?" he asked. Sitara blinked a green light in the corner of the cockpit before going silent.

Sensing some discontent over the neural link he and her shared, he decided to leave it alone for the while, he would ask her about it later.

* * *

Elsewhere...

"So what is it?" someone asked the figure at the desk. The figure watched the grainy feed for a while longer before responding.

"It looks like a Titan, maybe a militia northstar prototype." their voice was low and gravely. the figure watched for a little longer before turning to the person next to him.

"Prepare the troops, if they wont come in peacefully i want them captured. We might be able to smooth things out later once they see our cause, we cant let the enemies know about them."


	5. Surprise!

**A/N: Fun fact, i completed the last chapter while playing a part in a stupid "what not to do" skit for school! the entire skit all i had to do was sit and not pay attention to anything anyone was doing and do stuff on my ipad. my entire script was just comprised of "Hmm. Mhm. Hmm? Huh." and so on. Anyways, lets get back to the story.**

* * *

1248

Troy

Recon mission

Max was bored and hungry, not even his endless supply of music could keep him entertained. Breaking from the normal routine, Max scouted a cliff face nearby before flying up close and setting the Ion chassis down in a small break in the trees. Opening the cockpit, Max disconnected from Sitara before grabbing his stuff and clambering down onto the ground. Max started walking away towards the edge.

"What are you doing Pilot?" Sitara asked. Max turned around but continued walking backwards, holding up a ration packet and shaking it at Sitara.

"Lunch. 'bout time for a break anyways right? And I told you stop calling me pilot, just call me Max." He said before sitting down on a downed tree next to the edge. He hears Sitara's heavy footsteps behind him as she walked over to him before sitting down on the ledge, legs dangling over. He only gives her a glance before going back to his food, splitting open one half of the package and taking out some protein bars from within.

Staring out over the sun setting on the vast forest in front of him he began to eat, hating the bland food but enjoying something in his stomach. He put on some very very old music he had from before the decline of music, Dirty Laundry, by Don Henley, true classic music that he never got tired of. He stared tapping his foot to the rhythm while eating, catching Sitara's eye.

"Why are you tapping your foot? Are you impatient?" She asked. Max looked up from his meal in confusion before realizing she couldn't hear the music.

"I'm listening to music, tapping my foot to the beat, that kind of thing." He said before turning his external speakers on. Luckily the speaker quality was pretty good and the song came out well. He finished off his meal before tossing the biodegradable package away.

"I don't get it, why do they want dirty laundry?" Sitara asked about the music. Max laughed before explaining.

"The saying Dirty Laundry was a metaphor for secrets and drama. The song is about news teams trying to find drama that they can report about in order to make money, like when the song says "she can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye", that refers to a newscaster reporting something they know will catch attention and earn them money. Almost every song uses metaphors and things like that." While max was talking the song died down and was replaced with the sounds of The Prodigy, Firestarter. Max started getting up, the song setting his mood. He started stretching his limbs some to get the blood flowing back while Sitara got back up and away from the ledge. He was doing some lunges when Sitara suddenly looked into the forest around them.

"What is it Sitara?" Max asked, suddenly wary for whatever attracted her attention, either wildlife or nothing at all it still warranted attention. Sitara was quiet for a moment before talking.

"Turn up your music." She asked.

"What, you like the beat?"

"Turn up the volume pilot. Now." She said. Taking her seriously, he turned up the volume and waited. He didn't have to wait too long.

"We are not alone pilot. Please embark." She told him. Max turned down the volume and switched the music off, making sure he had his stuff before taking a running leap towards Sitara. She opened the cockpit and reached to grab him, but just as her hand closed around his waist, a shot rang out and hit Max's right shoulder.

Blood sprayed from the shot as Max yelled out in pain and alarm. Sitara cried out at max before putting him the rest of the way into the cockpit. Assuring he was secure, she closed the cockpit and turned around, gun drawn and four acolyte pods at the ready with fire of vengeance blazing in her eye.

A firefight had broken out in between the woods, strangely not against them but Sitara didn't care, right now everyone was an enemy. She popped a cartridge into the ion rifle, electricity crackling as it loaded, and unleashed a torrent of charged plasma into the woods. Two archer missiles screamed back towards her and before she could throw up a vortex they slammed into her left arm socket, damaging the main motors in it.

Retreating back towards the cliff, Sitara unleashed all 16 missiles of her own towards where the rockets came from. Another three archer missiles came screaming out towards her. As her own missiles started to hit things and explode she jumped back off the cliff and under the archer rockets, throwing off their targeting.

In a true action movie fashion, the cliff behind her blew up and she started her thrusters, flying away from the chaotic scene in the darkness of the night, an injured and unconscious pilot and a near useless left arm. Assessing her situation, she realized that the time had come and communications were cut off, the solar flare in effect. If she could've hit something out of frustration, she would. They were stranded for the time, injured with no idea who they were fighting or what they were up against.

"Just great." Sitara said to herself. If they ever lived through this it would be a miracle. Sitara had no idea what to do in this situation and just kept flying. Flying away from where max got shot, without thought, without pause. Tapping into Max's helmet, she monitored his vitals and tapped into his music, trying to find something to pass the time. It would be a long night.


	6. Lost city?

**STRANDED**

0713

Troy

Max started blinking awake, slowly stirring before the pain hit. Groaning, he clutched his shoulder and curled up, catching the attention of something else. Sitara noticed him up and walked next to him, lowering the acolyte pods she had at the ready to defend their position.

"Hey, hey, don't move okay, you'll just aggravate it." She told him. Coming to his senses, he laid back before looking at her.

"What happened? All I remember is jumping towards you, a pain, then I think I hit something hard."

"We were attacked. You were shot just as I grabbed you. I still put you in the cockpit and tried to fight the enemy, but they were in the forest so I couldn't tell who they were or where they were. Two archer rockets hit my arm damaging it past the point of operation. Communications are also still down. The solar flare was bigger than expected. I flew here and took care of your arm. It wasn't easy and I don't think the gauze is secure, but it's what I could do. You should be able to do a better job."

Looking at his shoulder he saw what she meant. The gauze did look a bit loose. "Thanks." He quickly tightened it before sitting up and taking a proper look at his surroundings. They were in what looked like an old and decaying concrete building on a hill, the second floor of the building had collapsed, giving Sitara room to stand, parts of the walls had fallen down, and local plant life had grown over a lot of different areas.

Through a giant hole in the side of the building where he assumed Sitara had come in from, he could see old abandoned streets and some car carcasses either off the side of the road or crashed into other buildings. He was thouroughly confused now. As far as he knew Troy never had any other cities or civilizations besides the colony set up by the survivors of that one IMC ship. And even then it wasn't as civilized as this place looked to have been. It honestly looked like a decayed and abandoned version of a city you might find on an IMC planet.

Getting up from the floor was difficult. Trying to move his right arm sent a huge wave of pain over him and he had to depend on his left to rise. Once he did though he started walking towards the hole in the wall, getting a better view of the decayed city. Most of the decay he thought was just natural was because of something else he realized. This place had been a war zone. Gun emplacements littered some rooftops, broken and abandoned, craters littering some buildings, and to top it all off, in the distance he could see the body of a space ship. It didn't look militarized but it made him more than curious.

"What is this place?" He asked Sitara. She blinked, eye rotating before answering.

"I do not know. This location did not show up on satellite images. This location is supposed to be on grid 724-Charlie, but the images only show a forest environment."

"Well this place can't have just appeared instantly. This place has been here for a long time." Max said as he leaned up against the edge of the wall. "You up for some flying?" He asked.

"I cannot do that."

"Why not?"

"Upon airspace entry, automated defenses lining the city perimeter activated and fired at us. I had to pull evasive maneuvers and land before proceeding to this building. Flying now will most likely result in being shot down." She reported.

"Wouldn't that be nice to mention earlier?" He said before frowning, why would an abandoned city have defenses still running? More and more questions piled up, but he shook his head clear and started down the hill.

Walking down the slope of the hill was slow going for Max, each jostle from a hard step aggravated his shoulder it wasn't until Sitara scooped him up and set him on her shoulder did they make real progress. Walking down the middle of the roads was like walking through a post apocalyptic city. Buildings were unrecognizable structures and damage was everywhere. Suprisingly though, the roads were in relatively good condition, which made nice paths through the city. Occasionally Sitara would kick a car husk out of the way, but other than that they had a clear path wherever they wanted to go.

"Why did you join the war?" Sitara asked. Taken off guard, he had to think about that for a moment.

"Well, I'd say off the bat because I had almost no other choices for the time it was offered, since I had just taken out the IMC trying to evict my neighborhood, but to be honest I could've easily survived there playing guerilla tactics for at least a few weeks before the IMC would probably give up. I think the real reason was more so I was bored. Sounds dumb, sure, but before the IMC came, I was living alone in a house my parents left me, had a boring automotive mechanics job I was overqualified for, went to a shooting range once a week, and there wasn't much to do around town. No challenges. The only real entertainment I had was some online video games I'd been playing since I was a kid." He started remembering back to his old life.

"It all started after an IMC inspector came by, he found some land he thought was nice and they had started plotting out what they would take over to build on. Most of the town was riled up about it but I didn't care. Only time I did care was when they started evicting people from their own homes on land they owned did I get involved. Originally it was just a few grunts, they kicked down doors and dragged people out, but when they went to the house next door where an sweet older couple that I got to know lived, I got involved. Those old folks had come to the frontier to live a peaceful life, and I'd be damned if I didn't help them. I had some family heirlooms from world war 3, a few ballistic guns and some old ammo. Both the ammo and the guns had been cared for over the years, something I'm pretty grateful for. I had two sidearms and a rifle, not much but they were good enough. The pistols were old Berretta 92's and the rifle was an AKM, very sturdy and reliable weaponry.

Anyways, they were just about to kick in the door and I could see the old couple cowering in a corner of their living room through a window, so I grabbed the rifle, put the pistols in my pockets, and rusher out my front door, catching all of them off guard. Once I opened fire three of them went down but the fourth ran into the house with the old couple. I reloaded and headed inside, but I wasn't fast enough, the remaining grunt had a gun to the head of the old lady and her husband was unconscious on the floor next to her. Damn bastard started using her as a shield while the poor woman was crying her eyes out grasping towards her husband and shouting at him. The grunt started shouting the usual BS, put down your weapons, put your hands in the air, all that.

I didn't head a word. I kept aiming. He had a helmet on, but that didn't matter for shit once I shot him. Those helmets aren't rated for older weaponry, the old ammo used more gunpowder and had a lot more punch. The bullet shattered his visor and went right through his eye socket. As he fell he lost grip on the gun and the woman so she rushed over to her husband on the floor while I rushed over to the grunt. The S.O.B. was still alive and screaming up a storm so I grabbed his leg and dragged him outside to where the entire neighborhood came out to see what was happening. My house was in a culdesac, so I dragged him screaming and flailing into the circle and left him there for some of the other more rowdy residents to deal with while I checked on the older couple. When I went back inside the husband had woken up and they were both holding each other tightly. They were fine besides a few bruises, but after that moment I had decided to defend those homes to the best of my ability. And when they returned a few days later, I was ready.

Most of the residents had holed up in some of the basements for safety while others that had volunteered helped me out. A few of them acted as scouts for me, informing me of the troops strength while others took up what arms they had and joined me for the actual fight. My file says I singlehandedly took them all out, but without their help I might've never pulled it off. When they came, they brought an atlas, a few pilots, and a lot of grunts. It did turn out to be more of a one sided fight when we sprung our trap. The atlas stayed at the end of the block, while the rest of the grunts split off to check houses. In almost perfect timing, the empty houses we rigged to blow went off, fire and smoke engulfing the area, providing the perfect cover. After the explosions all of us with weapons popped into our windows and rained fire down on the people in the middle of the street while some that didn't sat behind those that did, catching the empty magazines that were slid back and tossing loaded ones back. Almost every IMC troop in our range died, most others following right after.

The pilots, at the moment of the trap, one stayed and tried to fight, while the other ran towards the atlas. I didn't panic though, I actually smiled. When the pilot got close, I pulled out a modified phone and pressed a call. Instead of blowing up IEDs like you might think, the atlas went into supercritical. I had rigged it to send out an emergency self destruct signal aimed towards older titans. It ended up working like a charm. The pilot saw what was happening a moment too late and ended up trying to scramble back. It was almost funny to watch. The explosion that ensued though was the most powerful thing I'd ever felt. It ripped through the block, shifting houses on our end and destroying the ones on the other end. It made everyone pause on the battlefield, but we were back to fighting not long later. The remaining pilot ended up getting shot by stray fire, an unfitting end for him, but welcome all the less.

Once the fighting died down, we checked ourselves over, only having a few wounded, others were just shaken up. When we heard the sounds of dropships later on, we expected more of a fight. Some of the people were scared, but still wanted to fight. They knew they were too far down the rabbit hole now. We braced for another fight but to our surprise, it was the militia. They set down in part of the destroyed street and helped us. They helped relocate a lot of the people that were living there and offered the others a chance to fight, which they took. They offered it to me to, of course. And I took it. Not because I had no other options, because I did, but because during that fight, that was the first time I really felt purpose, defending our homes and our lives, and the rush of battle was intense. I knew my life would never be the same if I left, and that's exactly why I did. Frankly, I'm glad I did, I would have never met so many of my current friends and would have never learned to appreciate life like now. And I would have never gotten to meet you." He finished. Sitara blinked, but gave no other indication of a reaction. Max sighed and looked off into the distance.

"I'm glad you left too." Sitara suddenly said. Max smiled and patted Sitara's "head".

A few minutes went by in silence where Max had taken his helmet off to feel the breeze as Sitara walked towards the craft, but that silence was soon broken by humming. Confused, Max looked down. Sitara was humming. SITARA was humming. SITARA was HUMMING. Deciding not to break the unusual moment, he tried to figure out what song she was singing. Didn't take too long, but he figured out she was humming one of the oldest songs he had, a song by Peter Gabriel.

After a few seconds he decided to chime in as well, humming along. Sitara's eye rotated and looked back up at him, perched on her shoulder joint, but didn't stop humming. Instead her optic seemed to convey a smile before looking back ahead. Max smiled as well before starting to sing the lyrics. His voice wasn't particularly deep or low, but it went along great with the song.

"You could have a Steam Train. If you just laid down your tracks. You could have an airplane flyin, if you bring your blue sky back. All you do is call me, I'll be anything you need." He sang. Soon enough, Sitara joined in as well. He noticed how nice her voice sounded. She sounded almost perfect, and that's what set her apart from other A.I.s and robots. She wasn't perfect, and because of that simple fact it made her more human to him.

"I will shed my skin. This is the new stuff, I will show for you, will you, show for me."

"I will shed my skin. This is the new stuff, I will show for you, will you, show for me."

They sang as they walked towards their objective. Two songs later they had just about reached it. Another thing Max noticed was the closer to the craft they got, the less damaged the buildings appeared to be. By the time they were one block away from the craft, the buildings just looked abandoned and the cars run down. One building in particular caught his attention, a concrete building that had a giant metal door in the front that made it look like a warehouse. Curious, he patted Sitara's arm so she stopped before jumping down, using the jump kit to lessen the blow. While he was walking towards the building he stopped next to a fallen down sign that said "Rusty's Garage". Recognizing what the building was, he smiled. Turning to Sitara he asked a question.

"So, you remember that job I was overqualified for?" He said, grinning. Walking over to the big metal door, he grabbed a handle at the bottom and pulled it up. The door rose with a lot of creaks and shrill sounds of rusted metal, but once it rose to the roof, Max looked inside and saw something he never thought he'd see again since that trip to the museum when he was twelve.

* * *

 **A/N: So, this is the longest chapter I've done in a while. Turns out procrastination from math can help in some instances. Anyways, I think you'll enjoy these next few chapters once you find out what Max has found, but you'll have to wait and see what it is.**


	7. Slight filler

Spyglass stood behind an array of monitors and desks, part of the helm of the IMC. He didn't need to be there, but his other selves were already taking care of his tasks so this unit had to stand here to monitor the people working and await questions. Someone of probable unimportance walked up to him so he turned his unit to face them.

"Vice admiral Spyglass, We've found something... unusual. It's with unit SP-13124." Spyglass recalled the unit from a few of the board talks. The militia thought they could hide things, but the truth was every piece of tech from Hammond Robotics had hidden hardcoded programming, forwarding every titan's view and every scan to them, while blocking those scanners from detecting their frequency. The results had been very key, but like the enigma from old, once it had been cracked, it had to be kept secret, used for minor impacts the enemy wouldn't notice. That being said, only a select division of the IMC and Spyglass himself could access it.

Within less than a second, Spyglass pulled up the feed from the unit for the past few days, examined it, and came across a troubling factor. Spyglass nodded his head and waved the person away before calling an emergency board meeting. Two new players had entered the field unnoticed, and it was unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. Spyglass had a lot of planning to do. He had figured out every detail to the current one, he did not need any new unforseen players. It was absolutley UNACCEPTABLE. ABSOLUTLEY and UNACCEPTABLY UNEXPECTED. They knew almost NOTHING about these new threats. His units made a collective involuntary twitch as one made its way to the board room to address the issue.

If he could fume right now he would as he stormed into the room before standing in front of the TV to wait for the board. Once they finally did file in, confused about the meeting, he didn't even wait for formalities. He started bringing up the footage on the TV behind him as he faced the board and said,

"We have a problem."

* * *

Elsewhere two commanders at two different ends were yelling at their subordinates.

"HOW COULD YOU AND THE ENEMY SNEAK UP ON THEM WITHOUT NOTICING EACHOTHER!" They both roared. Both of the victims started wiping sweat from their brow and nervously wringing their hands.

"I don't know sir, but it will never happen again. I promise." They said.

"Well it better not." then separately they said, "I assume the enemy shot him?/I assume we shot him?"

"Yes sir."

"We cannot have the enemy around the next time we engage them./We cannot have the enemy around next time we encounter the them. Where is the militia pilot anyways?"

"They made it to the city. It is unknown how they knew it was there or they just flew there by complete coincidence, but we believe the enemy knows their location as well." They stated. The commanders thought for a moment.

"Well if they know their location we may need to step in quick. They may make a move soon."

"Yes sir, I'll round up Alpha squad." They both said. As the assistants ran off, both commanders leaned back and pulled out a photograph of two people in front of a spaceship from a new space age program. They both sighed before muttering "Soon, I will take you down brother."


	8. War!

Troy

Unknown city

Max stared ahead with a glee only matched by a school child at the two items he found. He looked at the two cars sitting in near perfect condition in front of him, the most famous muscle car in existence and a Semi truck. The muscle car was a black and chrome Mustang Boss 429, either perfectly restored from 1969 or rebuilt from plans, and the semi was an old red Peterbilt, the first thing that would come to mind when you thought classic semi, with a more box like build and a long engine compartment and chrome exhaust and grill. True he liked the semi, but he was more than extatic about the Mustang, it was the hardest car to find anywhere, and the most sought after for those that liked old fashioned power.

He slowly approached the car as if it would disappear at any sudden movement before he could touch the vented hood. Slowly moving his left hand across it to confirm it was real, he leaned down and hugged it, feeling the cool metal against his skin. Sitara watched on, very unsure of what was happening. Max remembered about her again before turning to look at her, gingerly getting up from the car as if to not damage it. He had a massive grin on his face and mood to match now.

"I have found one of the rarest things in existence. Do you know what this is?" He asked. She shook her eye. "This is the most sought after gasoline car from enthusiasts around every planet, a mustang boss 429, and my dream car ever since I heard of it. I don't care what it takes, but damned if I leave this here when we go." Max sat on the hood and started looking around the garage, spotting some repair equipment along the left, wielding tools to the back, and a big table of tools to the right.

Towards the front door though, there was a pegboard that had only two keys hanging on it. Max eagerly jumped back up and almost ran towards it before his arm flared up again. He slowed down and gripped it some to help the pain, but still walked over to the board and pulled the pair of keys that had the ford logo on them, faded but legible. He walked back over to the muscle car, taking a moment to admire it before unlocking the door and sliding in, admiring the black interior lined with wood and chrome accents.

"What do you plan on doing Max?" Sitara asked from the doorway. Max grinned before putting the keys in the ignition. It was a long shot, but he wanted to try. He pushed in the brake and clutch before awkwardly turning the keys on with his left hand. He could hear the started motor turning but it sounded weak. He held it there for a few seconds, listening to it slowly lose power, but just as he was about to let go, the engine roared to life. Max let go of the keys and sat back, enjoying the choppy rumble in front of him and the noise of the engine. The dials came to life for the first time in a long time in front of him, running to their max before settling back down properly. The gas needle was low, but Max figured he didn't need much.

Making sure it was in neutral, Max lifted his foot off the clutch before pressing his foot to the gas some. The choppy rumble smoothed out some as the rpm gauge lifted. He let off before he looked back at Sitara, who seemed very alarmed.

"Max, I am detecting explosions within that and the temperature of it is rising!" She said. Max laughed before shouting over the noise.

"That's what's supposed to happen! It's called an internal combustion engine. It burns gasoline and turns it into energy for movement." Sitara looked more relieved but still asked another question.

"What movement? Besides the vibrations it is creating it is not moving." Max pressed the clutch in again before grasping the wooden shift knob and pushing it into first. He stuck his other arm against the console to hold the knob in place before grasping the wheel and prepared to let the clutch in some.

"You might want to move out of the way." He shouted to her. She heeded his words and stepped to the side as he let off the brake and then clutch. The car started to move forward, rolling out of the shop and into the light, showcasing the beautiful glossy paint job and the chrome accents. Max was as proud as ever, turning the car to face the length of the road before pressing the clutch back in and shifting it out of gear. He finally turned the engine off before grabbing the keys and sliding back out the door.

"What is the use of that machine if it goes that slow?" Sitara asked. Max blanched before understanding.

"Oh, god no it goes way faster than that, but I have to be able to use my other hand to shift when I'm driving it. At full blast it will give you a run for your money. Anyways," looking back in the garage at the tools. "How about I try fixing your arm?"

Sitara shrugged and headed in where the Mustang used to reside. Max grabbed an acetaline torch and dragged the tanks next to her. Sparking up the torch he looked to her.

"Let's get fixing!"

* * *

Four hours later, Max had done the best he could with one arm, removing shrapnel from the arm, reconnecting circuits, repairing damage done to motors. It was time to test, Max stepped back and gave her the signal. Sitara nodded before trying to move her arm. A few creaks and groans started before a snap, and movement was restored. Max gave a cheer with his one moving hand before sitting down as Sitara tested the rest of her movements, satisfied with the functionality. Max smiled and grabbed his water canteen. Taking a swig, he gulped it down before screwing the cap back on with his other hand. Over the last few hours his arm had gotten better and hurt less to move after he patched it up properly, which helped a lot when he fixed her arm.

Starting to feel hungry, Max walked up to Sitara to grab some food, opening the cockpit from one of the handles on the side. Once he looked in there though, he winched. His blood was all over the side of his seat. Grabbing some spare cloth, he poured a bit of water on it and used it like a rag, managing to wipe a good amount of the blood off, but some of it would still stain. Sighing he grabbed a ration packet from a side compartment and his weapons from the rack, holstering them on his left. He walked away as Sitara closed her hatch. Now without much to do, he decided to explore the building. After checking the closets, he found nothing but cleaning supplies and tires, and the front waiting area didn't have much either. He walked outside and used his jump kit to reach the roof, boots gripping the curved metal sheeting. Up here he could get a decent look at the area, though not much was interesting still. He could get a better view of the spaceship which looked old, black and unused.

Remembering he still had to take a look at that, he decided to finish up. Checking around the back of the garage he saw a worn out sun baked flatbed trailer and an old rusted generator. He figured he could get Sitara to pull the trailer to the front to hook up to the Semi if he needed it, but he had no use for it as of now. Jumping back down, he made his way over to the Mustang in the middle of the street and took a few seconds to admire it. He wanted to use it to go over to the spaceship, but he knew it didn't have much gas, so instead he walked back inside, took the other keys, and walked over to the Peterbilt. He opened the door and took a big step up into the cabin. Max sat down before taking a look at the black dash. Surprisingly someone had modified it into an automatic, but Max was grateful for not having to shift. Max stuck the keys in the ignition and started it up, the engine's rumble lower and smoother than the Mustang. Shifting it into drive he rolled it out and faced it the opposite way from the Mustang, towards the ship.

Max looked at the dials and saw the gas needle almost to the full line. Smiling, he rolled down his window and looked to Sitara who was watching him.

"Ready to go check out that ship?" He asked. Sitara blinked and nodded before walking out next to him. "You can run if you want, I'll be able to catch up now." He shouted before hitting the gas. The engine roared as he began picking up speed. He heard Sitara's heavy footfalls behind him before she passed him. He wasn't afraid of losing though, as the transmission shifted up he continued accelerating faster and started catching up to Sitara. It shifted again and Max started passing Sitara. They were on a nice straightaway too, so he didn't have to worry about braking yet. Sitara, noticing the semi passing her picked up even more speed, using some of her jets to help her frame forwards. Sitara started passing him again, so Max stepped it up and pressed the pedal all the way in, matching her speed then passing it, barreling down the road. Looking at the distance remaining on the straightaway he reconed he had at least one more minute before he has to start braking.

Max started taking it easy before Sitara flew past him. Startled he let off the gas and swerved before regaining control. Sitara had started flying a few feet off the ground! Slightly angry, Max stomped on the gas again and sped up towards his max speed, 70,80,90,100,110, He started loosing less ground before he realized he was coming up on the turn fast. Hitting the brakes, he started slowing down, but he wasn't slowing fast enough so he started using the Semi's jack brake, wheels letting out a loud choppy noise as he slowed down even more, but still he wasn't slow enough. In order to not hit the building, he swerved to the left early. Holding on to the steering wheel with all he had, the truck screamed around the corner, narrowly missing a pole and going on three wheels. After what seemed like an eternity later, the truck slammed back on all wheels and stopped in the middle of the road.

Max sat there panting, knuckles white and a lot more pain in his arm. Slowly, he let go of the wheel and slunk back in the seat. Sitara had fared far better, landing in front of the truck no worse for wear.

"What was that about?" Sitara asked. Max looked at her.

"These things can't stop on a dime. What do you think happened." Max sat back up in the seat before turning the truck around and heading towards the ship, only a block away now. Sitara started walking with him instead. No longer in a race.

Once they reached the spaceship, they noticed that it was obviously kept there historically. It was in an overgrown grassy field that had been meticulously cut in another time, with a concrete slab and placard in front with writing on it. Max parked the truck before sliding out the door and over to the placard. It was faded bronze but still read:"The Katrina, the first space vessel made by the Reach project." Looking back up at the ship itself, it was decently big, about half the size the macallan had been, with an angular front ending in an oval shape, but no side engines, the only visible thrusters on the back. He also noticed the front end looked better than the rest of it, probably part of a restoration that had never been completed. Sitara began walking around the massive ship, scanning it.

Max started recording both of their views from his helmet before tagging a ride on Sitara. They walked around the sides, but from the sides it was completely flat, no portholes, no external ports. It wasn't until they got to the back of it that anything of interest came up. The thrusters were huge for the size of the ship, but even more interestingly was there was a gangway hatch in the back, closed, but visible. Sitara walked up to it before forcing it open, old metal groaning and shuddering. What it opened to looked to be a cargo bay, devoid of anything but a few crane pieces, straps, and a few walkways to other doors that were open. There was one main double door though at the middle labeled Cryo Bay, which instantly piqued his curiosity. Max walked aboard, Sitara taking more time to get in because of the low gangway, but was still able to get in.

Max unholistered his wingman just in case and went up to the double doors. Locating a release lever next to them, he pulled it and one of the doors creaked open with a pneumatic hiss. The daylight shining in didn't show much, so he turned his taclight on and shone it around the room with his view. It was a long, long corridor filled with empty cryo chambers and old equipment. While Sitara poked around the cargo area for scanning, Max started walking to the end of the corridor where another important looking door was. The empty cryo chambers started creeping him out though so he started picking up the pace, making it to the door quicker. Pulling the same lever he had last time, one of the doors opened again, but it got stuck halfway. Still having enough room to get through though, he shuffled past it and into a room filled with inactive computer banks. At the front of it all was a master terminal, a blinking red light on part of it labeled "reactor control." Taking a closer look at the panel, he saw a few buttons and one master switch labeled 'reactor restart'.

Obviously, Max reached for it and flipped it up. At first nothing happened, but afterwards a whirring started in the floors above him and all the lights turned on. A screen in front of him flickered to life, running startup code before showing a status report. Red flags started popping up before an automated voice rang through the ship.

"Warning. System running below optimal levels. Repairs required." Max looked around at some of the other screens, some showing different diagrams with red flags. Shrugging though, he walked over to the center of the control center and flipped up a panel, shoving his dataknife in to extract data. As soon as he did though, the automated voice rang again.

"Warning, data extraction in progress. Would you-you-you-yo... Warning. Malicious code detected. Unauthorized reactor detonation will begin in 30 minutes." Max froze. Alarms started ringing out and lights flashed, the screen showing the reactor status with red flags all around.

"What the hell!" He shouted to no one in particular. His com link opened and Sitara's eye greeted him.

"Max what the hell did you do?" She asked. Max gritted his teeth as the dataknife finished extracting the data. He sheathed it again before rushing back to the doors.

"I didn't do anything! I just turned the power back on and extracted the data banks! This shouldn't have happened!" Max shouted. He ran past the banks of now active computers and shimmied through the doors, running as fast as he could through the Cryo Bay. He made it out to see Sitara crouching out and beckoning him forwards. He didn't hesitate. He ran like the wind out into the overgrown grass and sprinted over to the truck, getting in with haste an starting the engine. Pulling back out and heading towards the garage from before he opened the commlink again as he began picking up speed.

"Sitara, you're faster than me, can you head to the garage and grab the trailer from behind it and have it ready for me?" He asked. Unquestioningly, Sitara complied and started flying fast and low. Max stepped on the gas, barreling down the road he could see Sitara in the distance pulling the worn trailer out front. As Max neared he slowed down and went around the Mustang before backing into the trailer Sitara was holding. He left the keys in and the engine running as he ran to the back of the trailer and lowered two ramps from the back. Rushing over to the Mustang he started it up and rolled it onto the flatbed, putting it in park, emergency brake on. He turned the engine off but left the keys in as he jumped out and ran back into the truck.

"Good news, communications are restored Pilot." Sitara announced as she climbed on the back of the trailer, standing on the available space. Max immediately opened a communications channel to the dropship that was orbiting.

"Oh, hey Max what's up?" They answered. Recognizing the voice of the secondary pilot, Scotty, he sighed in relief.

"Oh yeah, just great, I've been shot, found an unknown civilization, and an bout to go up in a nuclear fireball. Yeah. I need evac ASAP." Max shouted, bringing the truck around to a freeway area that looked to go to the city limits.

"Oh, umm ok. Where do you need our pickup?" Max groaned inwardly.

"I'll mark it on the map, just be ready for possible enemy fire and to pick me, Sitara, and a car up."

"Ok, I'll.. wait and a car?"

"Don't question it, just do it."

"Alright boss, I'll get them to make some space."

"Thanks. I'll buy you a beer later. Max out."

Max thundered along the highway, Sitara standing at the ready as they raced to the end of the highway. Soon some old cars started popping up around the highway and Max was forced to slow down to take evasive maneuvers.

"Sitara, can you clear me a path? I'm not going to be able to go fast enough if I have to dodge these things." He shouted to her. Sitara nodded before jupping off and flying ahead, bashing cars away with her hands as she flew a straight path in front of him. Max pressed in the gas again as they continued to run away from the ship. Max finally started to relax some, but he should've known better than that.

About thirty miles from the the end of the highway, a sudden glare hit him from a forward building. A glare he was too familiar with. He put his knee up to keep the wheel steady as he grabbed his Kraber and looked for the enemy sniper. Quickly spotting him on the balcony of an abandoned motel, he shot the same time the enemy did. The enemy missed, Max didn't. The only problem was the shot the enemy missed hit the trucks engine. It coughed and sputtered as it died and he began to lose speed. Max started cursing as he hit the wheel in frustration. Sitara heard both shots and came to investigate.

"Are you hurt Pilot?" She asked.

"No, had contact with enemy sniper. Damn idiot shot the engine. Be on the lookout, I'll have to switch cars." He announced. The tractor trailer slowed to a near stop and he jumped out, running to the back, throwing the ramps down and hauling himself up onto the bed. Getting in the Mustang, he threw the Kraber in the passenger seat and started it up. He backed off the ramp and quickly put it into first, peeling out as he put the pedal to the metal. He got back on track and threw it into second, engine roaring as he speed up. Max waited as he watched the RPM dial before putting it into third. 70,80,90,100,110,120 MPH. He threw it into fourth and the car really got going, 130,140,150,160,170 180, he maxed out the dial and was still going faster.

He was absolutley flying, pressed back against the seat with a crazy grin at his face. Max caught up to Sitara, who was flying before slowing just a bit to her level. Rolling down his window he shouted at her.

"How's this for a run for your money?" But his words were lost to the wind and the engine noise. Sitara knew what he meant though and activated a second row of jets she rarely used that doubled her speed. Max grumbled about her being a 'show off' and rolled his window up again, speeding back up.

Up ahead with Sitara though she flew a little higher and saw something troubling in the distance. Enhancing her view she zoomed in on the road ahead of them. Realizing what it was, she cursed and opened a comm link to Max.

"Headsup. They've got a roadblock up ahead about two miles." Max cursed at the news.

"Well destroy it and clear a hole. I can't stop now." He told her. Sitara shrugged and readied her acolyte pods. At least she got to have some fun. She waited until she was close enough before letting all 16 missiles go, killing som footsoldiers while knocking two of the vehicles into the air where she screamed by and used both of her fists to smack them out of the air and to the sides. Not five seconds later Max came roaring past the roadblock and the confused soldiers.

Max let out a shout as he drove past them, sticking his wingman out the window and firing off a few shots at the men behind him. Once he ran out of shots he pulled his hand back in and continued following Sitara. Things looked better, but that was only until the mortars and artillery came. He heard them whistling through the air before he saw them.

"Oh Shiiiiit!" Max yelled as he swerved to avoid the shells. Tires squealed as he doged two barrages, exploding just yards from him and peppering his car with small concrete debri. "That better not have scratched the paint!" He shouted angrily. Up ahead a firefight had broken out again at another roadblock. The thing was it wasn't Sitara fighting, it was the enemy fighting other people. Deciding to help out, he put his Kraber in the window frame and helped out the newcomers in dark green camo and black that were fighting their enemy by sniping some of the grey ones. He saw a few of the newcomers fight their way to some of the trucks ahead of him and move them out of the way, clearing another path. Max stuck a hand out his window and waved thanks as he passed the soldiers by.

"Sitara, don't shoot the ones in dark green and black okay? They just helped me past a roadblock. But keep an eye on them in case they decide we're an enemy too."

"Affirmative pilot. Alert, unknown ships approaching. Alert, friendly dropship five minutes out." Sitara reported. Max frowned. Once those other ships got here it would probably turn out to be a war zone, and he would have to get to the dropship almost as soon as it lands to get out before being shot down. Max took his foot off the gas for a few seconds to give the engine a break, which turned out to be a miraculous coincidence as a mortar shot that would've landed right where his hood wouldve been landed into the concrete before exploding behind him after he drove past it.

The shockwave from the explosion did end up lifting the rear end of the car up some and causing him to looze control. Fighting for control, he let off the gas and managed to dodge a rusty car in his path and almost ended up hitting a crashed tanker, but he stepped on the gas and managed to fishtail a better angle before missing it by a matter of inches. Max let off the gas again and regained control, relaxing his grip on the wheel and taking a breath.

"Sitara, can you find and take out the mortar setups? Their shells are getting too close for comfort." Max asked. Sitara was currently raining justice from above, using independent targeting on the missiles to take out any and all enemy's she could see while the lasers were taking on the targets too close to the 'friendly' forces. Sitara took the request and started scanning for mortar setups. Off to the right, she detected at least three mortars setup on the roof of a hotel with a number of troops around them, manning them and defending. Sitara readied her acolyte pods and fired off all of the ordinance at them, but before they hit six archer rockets were fired. Sitara quickly holstered her weapon before stretching out both hands two vortex shields popping into existence and catching the rockets. Without thought she threw the rockets back at the roof and flew off, joining in on a nearby assault on an enemy controlled building.

"Enemy mortars down. Alert, unknown user attempting transmission." Sitara reported back to max. Max dodged another car before responding.

"Maybe it's our new friends. Put it through." Max told her. A few seconds went by before a camera popped up in the corner of his hud. A man with a dirtied face came into view wearing a black helmet and green camo. Max started first.

"I guess I have you to thank for helping us through this shit?" Max asked. The man laughed before responding.

"I guess you could say that, but at this point your titan is doing more work than us! I'm John Marshal, but just call me Marshal. My commander assigned me to be your contact and liaison for us. If you need any help just point it out and I'll get my men right on it."

"That's great and all, but who the hell are we fighting with and against!?" Max asked.

"Neither of our groups have a name, but we're like your Militia but we've been fighting here instead. We're up against our version of the IMC. We'll help you get wherever you're going but they're going to try to stop you to the best of their ability." Marshal replied.

"That's great. I've got evac coming in in a few minutes, also you guys will need to evacuate. That ship in the middle of the city is about to go up in a nuclear fireball. Someone booby trapped the systems before I got there."

"Well shit. I'll issue an evacuation order. How long do we have?"

"It said I had thirty minutes, and it's been about twenty. We'll get out just in time if you start evacuating now. By the way I'm Max."

"Nice to meet you Max. We'll get the word out and you just get to your evac and get out. I'll either catch you once you're in orbit or later on, but we'll talk again." After that the transmission was cut and another opened to the dropship.

"Scotty where are you? This place is a literal war zone and I'm stuck in the middle with an impending nuclear fireball about to go off at my tail!" Max shouted.

"Sorry sir, we had some issues. We'll be there in thirty seconds."

"You better be!" Max said before dodging another car husk. He noticed the fuel was getting low and looked at the evac beacon which wasn't too far from him. He slowed down some to make sure he wouldn't have to wait as a sitting duck before opening a comm link to Sitara.

"Sitara, we're leaving, wrap up whatever you're doing and be ready to get on the dropship." Pretty soon he could see Scotty exiting warp and flying in. Max was almost on top of the beacon so he slowed down and turned so he could drive into the ship. Sitara flew up next to him before landing, making sure to guard her pilot. The ship set down, door already opening for them. Max drove in on the ramp as Sitara stomped in and connected herself to the ship, where they could feed off her supply.

Max settled the Mustang in front of some cargo that had been pushed up and parked it. Getting out, he quickly dropped down and secured a line around the car's front axle before shouting "Punch it!" to the cockpit. The door closed behind them as the ship rose and set itself in a warp familiar feeling of his vision being warped happened before an explosion hit his ears and the world exploded into white.


	9. Recovery and plans

**A/N: Okay, I realize I made a mistake recently. I had Sitara get damaged by rockets without her shields catching it first. To be fair I hadn't thought it through and didn't catch it until it was too late. Doesn't matter too much though, but I'll try to avoid those kind of problems again. Also, this is a bit shorter than normal because of school issues, but I should be writing longer chapters soon.**

Arkine Dropship

Orbit over Planet Troy.

They exited warp, the whiteness fading from his vision as everything normalized.

"Report." Barked Max.

"We took a hit but the shields held sir." Scotty replied from the front. Max took a breath and relaxed. He was okay, Sitara was okay, and the car was okay. Max walked over to the portholes in the side of the dropship, showing numerous other ships probably belonging to their new friends engaged in battle with a different fleet slightly smaller in size. Looking back at the planet, he stared for a minure, watching more ships exit less than a minute before a massive explosion was seen where the town used to be.

The giant red and yellow fireball could be seen from outer space, pausing all of the fighting. Everyone watched as the explosion expanded, only looking like the size of a quarter, but everyone knew it was much bigger. It continued for what felt like a minute before turning into black smoke and dispersing. That seemed to act as a dismissal for every body there, all of the ships that had been fighting started to split off, heading in their own respective ways. The Arkine dropship heading to Harmony, and both of the other groups heading in opposite ways, the enemies heading towards the edge of the frontier, their new 'friends' heading towards militia controlled space.

"That won't be the last time we see either of them." Max stated to no one in particular.

Once the dropship reorintated towards harmony, a lower version of the warp started, propelling them towards the militia's base. Max leaned back from the technicolor space around them and turned his attention back towards the cabin stopping the recording he had forgot he had running, he forwarded it to Briggs and took his helmet off, running a hand through his now sweaty hair. In the cabin, Scotty set the ship on auto and started walking down from the cabin towards Max.

"Pardon me for saying this sir, but what the hell happened down there?!" Scotty asked, probably mind boggled at what just happened. Max thought about it.

"To be honest, I'm not sure even I know. But all I do know is that a lot of things are going to hit the fan. We'd best lay low for a bit once we get back in order to sort this all out." Max said before staring off and contemplating what the reporcussions of this will all be.

"Also, why have you got a car?" Scotty asked. Blanking, Max realized Briggs would be furious that he took the car for no reason other than 'I liked it.' Max facepalmed and groaned at the thought of the impending speech.

"Damit I have to create a good reason now." Max said. He started brainstorming reasons before realizing he had more important things to focus on. "Wait, how do we even explain half of what happened back there to Briggs?I already sent her the footage, but I forgot to give her context. She's going to be very confused. I also still need to give her the data I extracted." Max said, unsheathing his knife and tossing it to himself.

"Pilot, may I?" Sitara asked, holding a hand with the vortex shield slightly activated. Max nodded and tossed the knife into the ball of energy in her hand. It got stuck in the mini vortex as she brought it up to her optic, the lights along the blade flickering from the extraction. A few seconds later Sitara had all the data compiled before letting the knife go back to Max, who swiftly caught it and sheathed it. She started shifting through the data, but soon realized that would take a while.

"There was a ton of data in there, it will take me at least an hour to sift through it all. I reccomend you take a nap or prepare for the impending conference Max." Sitara finished. Max took a look around the room, and upon seeing no real comfortable surfaces nearby, decided to put his helmet back on and create a mission report, playing Let Go by Deadmau5 to wind down.

Scotty, having gotten no real answers, shrugged and went back to the cabin. It was above his pay grade anyways.

Meanwhile a confused Briggs sat in her office on harmony, a coffee cup in hand and legs kicked up on the desk where a confusing and at the same time awesome video was playing from an email. She sat frozen as it went on before swallowing her mouth of now cool coffee and getting up and storming out of her office.

"Alright, who sent me this prank video? I want names!"

* * *

IMC Headquarters

General Marder and a Spyglass unit stood in front of a telescreen, conversing with someone at the other end.

"We want to know your intentions. Mr. Khan. You can imagine how our fleet feels about another military force showing up unannounced during a war." Marder asked. The other person chuckled before replying.

"Why, I am here to make a deal, Mr. Marder."


	10. Meetings

Militia planet Harmony

The next day

Briggs stormed down the hall towards the conference room, a few other people in tow and a pilot begging Riggs to give him back his Kraber.

"No! You made a stupid decision risking your life for that car. You won't get it back until you prove you can make better choices." Briggs scolded. Max didn't say anything but relented, slinking back to the rest of the group before taking a longing look at his Kraber. Once they reached the room, they all filed in, Briggs sitting down at the head of the table and the other captains and generals in side seats. Max waited for them to all sit down before realizing he had no place to sit. Stifling a groan he wearily stood off to the side.

Looking around the room he recognized a few faces out f the ten or so people sitting down; Ivan, the head of the heavy titan support unit(the ones called in when things went to hell), Barker, Bish, and that one M.C.O.R. crackshot pilot named Jack or something that stopped the fold weapon (Max would have to thank him later both for the prevention of harmony's destruction and the scan of the ark).

"Okay." Briggs started,"I'm sure most of you have seen the report I sent you and the footage captured by Max here. I also have a new mission for us. Intercepted comms show that our new enemies have been busy, conversing with the IMC about some new weapon. We have to infiltrate and steal any and all data we can about it. Standard procedure right? Problem is it's not that simple. Bish."

"Right," Bish continued." The data is held in a IMC stronghold near the city Chattan on the IMC controlled planet: PlanetN." Bish finished. An intake of breath was audible in the room. Even Max knew where that was. That was the 15th planet humanity had found, and it was relatively close to the core planets. True it wasn't even in the same solar system, but it was closer to the core planets than they'd ever be comfortable with.

"Now before you shy away,-"

"Ivan never shy away." Ivan interrupted. Briggs continued anyways, shooting him a glare.

"We have a lucky break in two days. An annual solar event is going to block the IMC's radar equipment on the planets near our path, giving us the chance to slip in undetected and surprise them. They will expect us to try something during that time though so we need to mount a big assault. Once we infiltrate the compound, a team will head into the data vaults and extract all the data they can. Max and cooper, you'll be part of that team."

Max froze. He hadn't really seen combat on that scale yet and was afraid of messing up. Especially in front of a skilled pilot like Jack. Looking over to the aforementioned pilot, he noticed him looking back at him with curiosity. Standing a little straighter, he couldn't help but think of how to prevent screwing up in front of people he needed to impress.

The rest of the meeting Max was distracted, answering questions about the previous mission but not paying much attention to the rest of the conversations. Anxious, he started mentally planning sessions in the VR pods. He wanted to be as prepared as possible for this.

* * *

Max made his way to the regular training rooms, the VR systems and other exercises there for pilot's use. As a known regular, the person running the VR pods nodded his way and motioned to an open pod. Max nodded back and clambered down into the seat of the pod, sitting back against the seat before flicking a few switches and closing the doors. The familiar pinch in his neck happened before he became immobilized and his view filled with white. Once it faded, he found himself inside a familiar roofless room. In front of him was a round chunk of ground that had a ronnin sword stuck in it with water floating upwards.

All around the room guns were mounted on the wall and on spikes that fell down from the sky around the sword. Max went ahead and grabbed a DMR, a few arc grenades, and by his occasional request, a recreation of his dual berettas off an extra section of the wall. Taking a second to admire the black and orange steel, he hefted them for a second, feeling the padding on the sides of the grips, and the rough metal on the hammers. He spun them once around his fingers before shoving them into their holsters.

"Alright. I'm ready." Max said to the sky.

"Where would you like to fight today?" Came the reply.

"Throw me into an assault. And don't make anything easy on me." Max asked. The area around him transformed. Walls fell out, the floors changed into a rough terrain, buildings rose from the ground, and the sounds of battle started. The floor he was on rose up until it turned into the bottom of a dropship. Soon he found himself in a standard dropship filled with pilots. A Marvin unit stood smiling at attention before giving a thumbs up as the doors opened. Max turned on his music as everyone rushed out and into a proper war zone. Artillery fired upon city buildings in front of him, grunts rushed forwards through streets, and pilots ran along billboards. Once Max hit the ground he took off running, quickly scaling a nearby building, grapple kicking a nearby IMC pilot that had just climbed up as well, and looking for targets.

Outside of the sim pod however, another certain pilot came into the training room and noticed the monitor above the sim pod Max was in, showing his view as he fought. Walking over, he started to watch before the attendant noticed him.

"Oh, hey Jack. Saw you watching Max, you wanna join him?" He asked. Jack though about it. So this was the person who was suppose to be in the strike team.

"Sure. Usual load out, but put me someplace I wan watch him fight. I'm curious about his skill." Cooper said as he climbed into a nearby pod.

Meanwhile, Max had found a new vantage point on top of a water tower and was popping anything and everything IMC within his sight. At one point Max even shot the satchel charge out of the air in front of a group of IMC grunts, making a lovely explosion. He reloaded and looked to his right where he had been monitoring a titan fight. A militia legion had decided to fight a IMC tone, and they had been going at it for a while. The legion was facing the opposite way and the tone was shooting facing his direction.

Getting a bad feeling, he was proven right as an unguided rocket cluster screamed pats the legion and slammed into the base of the tower, shrieking and groaning metal folding like paper as it started to tilt. Yelling, Max jumped off the collapsing structure and grappled onto the fixture of a nearby billboard, slingshotting off it and taking a nice aerial view of the area. Spotting a nice partially destroyed office building with a few IMC on top, Max shifted himself in the air before grappling onto it's ledge and traveling straight up in an arc.

He retracted up until he had about twenty feet left and stopped retracting, letting the momentum carry him the rest of the way up. Firing his jump kit, he swung out from the building wall and the grapple line caught, swinging him in a partial circle over the edge. While he was still in the air and just before the top of the circle, he let the grapple go and sailed over the IMC's heads on top of the roof, landing behind them and shooting them all in the back. He started to get the feeling of being watched, but after a quick survey and finding no snipers, he brushed it off.

Taking a proper look at the battlefield, it was chaos. IMC had dug in deep along one side of the city, and masses of Militia were flocking in on dropship, setting up artillery that fired upon the IMC installations and assaulting IMC controlled buildings. Marking potential targets for himself, he set up shop and had his spotter system running, sniping anybody and everybody that he could find. He sniped a few more grunts mortaring a platoon of Militia before his scope came across a wierd sight along the higher end of the city . A vanguard class titan draped in normal Militia green and orange was taking on a group of two tones, a ronnin, and a legion. He hadn't heard a player join announcement, so he was confused as to why there was a vanguard here. Never the less though, it seemed to be having trouble so Max tried to figure out a way to help.

"Titan ready." Droned the automated system. Max grinned. Now he could help. Calling Sitara down, she didn't end up dropping straight to the ground like normal, she ended up swooping in and landing beside him on the roof.

"Doing training again?" Sitara asked. Once she had been called in her automated A.I. had connected from her hangar.

"Yeah. Spotted a friendly in trouble. Let's assist them, shall we?" Max chimed, grinning. Max jumped into Sitara's cockpit and put his rifle to the side before the pinch happened yet again. Max moved a hand in front of the optic, clenching it to get reorientated and jumping off the roof, flying towards the vanguard. Coming in from the side where the enemy titans were nice and lined up behind cover, Max readied both acolyte pods before releasing them all in a bombing run directly on top of them, disorientating and damaging.

Spinning in the air, Max flew backwards to face them and released a few lasers while he grabbed the Ion rifle from the back of the chassi. Max readied the rifle before reversing the thrust and flying back towards them, unloading the clip in the nearest titan, shredding their shields. Max swooped right before backfliping down onto the ground next to the vanguard, who he could now see was labeled BT-7274. Paying no heed though, Max continued to advance on the enemies, firing upon the one without shields while shooting rockets to the right to suppress the others.

Once the rockets had to restock the enemies came from behind cover and started to fire, but Max had been prepared, already holstering the rifle and activating a vortex shield, catching the incoming projectiles as he advanced. Throwing the caught ammo back at the group, he switched the right vortex shield on as his other hand drew back to grab the sword off the back of the chassi. Once he had it in his hand, he threw the caught bullets in his right shield back before grabbing the sword in both hands and charging. He shot two lasers to finish off the first titan he had damaged before activating his core.

A powerful laser shot from Sitara's optic, shredding through the enemy titans shields and superheating the steel blade Max held in the middle of the blast. Once the core finished, he shot both pods at separate enemies, followed up with two more charged lasers that shredded through both of the enemy cockpits and the superheated blade that Max stabbed straight through the middle one. And just like that, all four enemy titans were defeated. Turning, Max faced the vanguard behind him.

"And I thought I was going easy on them." Crackled the vanguards speakers. Max recognized the voice and nearly melted. Jack was the one watching him fight. "You're good kid, but tomorrow will be the true proving ground. Impress me." Jack finished. And just like that the simulation vanished and Max found himself in the simpod. Getting out, he looked for Jack but he was already gone.

* * *

Max rummaged around his quarters, grabbing his spare DMR off his gun rack and putting his wingman back. Needing all the firepower he could get, he holstered his berettas on either side of his waist and stored some spare clips along the belt line as he strapped on the rest of his combat rig. He also went into his room and grabbed his AK from atop his dresser and its mags sitting in a pile next to it. Since the gun wasn't magnetic he grabbed a gun sling and automatically strung it around his neck. He grabbed three fire stars and clipped them into his harness next to his mags and dataknife. Taking a look around his quarters, he checked if he was missing noticing anything, he walked towards his door, running a gloved hand over the glossy black Mustang he put as the centerpiece of his quarters.

He removed his hand and reached his door, taking one last took at the place before sighing and exiting, walking down to the main hangar. The P.A. system rang throughout the halls as he walked.

"Special units A through M please report to any and all transports to escort the F.M. WarPig. Special units N through S report to the F.M. Macallan2. Prep for takeoff."

Max automatically got into a nearby dropship full of pilots headed to escort WarPig, random units that were there at the time. He climbed the ramp next to the rest of them, no need for conversation. Everyone knew what to do. They all mechanically sat down in available spots, Max ending up next to a pilot with a custom painted helmet of a Phoenix or something. Taking a slight look around at the pilots in the dropship with him, he noticed a few looking at the AK against his shoulder, others just looking straight ahead or out of the pilot next to him looked over and noticed his gun.

"Old gun ain't it? Why you bringing it along?" The pilot asked. Max gave a small laugh.

"It may be old but it still fires better than a flatline." Max said, chambering a round and turning the fire selector on full auto. He put it back up against his shoulder and set his head back to try to nap. As the dropship closed up and launched, Max put on a classical playlist and closed his eyes. The biggest fight of his life was about to go down in a few hours, he wanted to savor the time he had now.

 **A/N. Soooooo. Very big fight coming up. Lots of things going to go down. Be prepared for the new chapters next week. If I did make any mistakes this chapter or any chapter feel free to point it out. Also, to Big Pizza, ;)**


	11. Who are you?

**A/N: First of all, don't worry, I'll make sure to see this story through, and no it's not ending soon. Secondly, sorry for the wait, life hit me quick recently and I've had to take time away from writing to catch up. I've got time and inspiration now and I'll make sure to upload more frequently.**

Max sat quietly in the dropship, tapping on his weapons. He still had at least an hour until they reached the planet, so he didn't feel that bad as he started nodding off, the classical music and relative silence of the dropship assisting him. As he fell unconscious, instead of the regular lack of senses and usual dreams recounting a warped version of his thoughts, a certain awareness and white blue landscape greeted him. Confused, he looked at himself, still in combat gear and fully equipped from what he could tell. He wasn't in a normal state though, it was as if he was drugged, he felt heavy and it took concentration to move and think, like his body was just about asleep and he had to struggle to stay awake.

Looking ahead a shimmering crystalline doorway greeted him. Slowly plodding over to it, some details became clearer, the doorway seemed to be made of shards of floating glass, outlining its shape. Scattered reflections of himself looked back at him. Walking through the doorway he was greeted with a pedestal and a long hallway with moving paintings on the wall. Taking a look at the pedestal, a plaquard read "Hall of Memories."

Was he in his own mind right now? What the hell was this? Lacking the power to think much about it, he continued in, glancing at the moving paintings, depicting some of his childhood memories. He smiled at a few of them, chuckled at others and looked at a few of them with a different point of view. Further in the paintings changed from childhood to his teen years, showing him having fun with his friends, working on mechanics and learning trade skills with his dad, to laughing at cheesy movies with his mom. Max smiled at the sight of them. It had been a while since he had talked to them, he should probably call them after this next fight.

He continued walking further in, watching the scenes change to his adult life before the militia. Going through a well known trade school, getting a few temp jobs as a mechanic, and finally settling down in his parents old house after they left for a vacation lifestyle on the core planets. Soon he reached the memories of the fight for his home that started his new way of life. Looking at a specific one, he recognized himself standing in the middle of the street, rifle ready and facing a spotlight shining on him. Taking a closer look at himself, he could see the toll the fight had taken on him back then. He had a few lines of blood on his shirt, one or two from grazes, others weren't his blood. His face and hands were dirty, palms and fingers blackened by gunpowder, and his hair an absolute mess. The only thing about him that hadn't changed was his eyes. They were still determined stormy grayish blue as they always were when he fought.

Moving on, he walked past a few different ones while he was still a grunt, smiling at ones that depicted him and Jax partying or others trying to best him at a marksmanship contest. Finally he got to the more current ones, meeting Sitara and going through pilot training, to their first assignment just days ago. Once he reached the one where he got in the dropship, everything else was unfamiliar to him. He was going to go and look at the others, but a whistle behind him made him turn around. What he was faced with he hadn't expected. But then again, what else would he expect? In front of him in the center of the hallway stood himself, or at least an older version of himself, judging by the wear on their gear.

"You're not supposed to see those yet." The older version of him said. They definitely sounded like an older version of himself.

"Then why bring me here? Where is here?" Max asked. "Are you me?"

"Yes, and you already know where we are. You're just starting to reach the tip of the iceberg. All will be revealed eventually, but I had to start you somewhere." They said. They turned before looking back. "Over the next few hours and days things will become very confusing, but I know you won't stress much about it, we've always been fine with not knowing how some things work."

They looked back down the corridor and started walking away. Max stood there for a second, watching himself walk away before he blinked and they were gone. He started blinking again and again before yawning. He was getting very weak all of a sudden. He started sitting down, overcome with tiredness. He laid back before falling unconscious, the world darkening and dissolving.

As darkness consumed him, he felt a tingling sensation starting from his limbs and traveling upwards that quickly turned to electric shock. He tried and failed to scream out as the electricity traveled up his body before reaching his head. Visions flew past him, uncomprehensible noises rang through his mind, and the electrical surge reached a peak where he could practically feel arc waves traveling along his limbs. Just when he didn't think he could take any more, everything stopped and a huge wave of vertigo hit as he woke up panting, clutching his chest. Looking around, a few other pilots gave him a wierd look but didn't really care. Taking a second to collect himself, he tried to make sense of what had happened. He was inside his mind? What did he meant things would be confusing?

An alert popped up in his hud and he saw he was about ten minutes away from the planet. He would have to stow away the rest of his thoughts for later when he had the time. The green ready light came on in the cabin, everybody sitting upright and checking their equipment. It was almost time to attack. From the cabin he could hear radio chatter pick up as they neared the solar system and the fleet exited warp.

Max checked over his equipment once more before standing up with the rest of the pilots once the drop light turned yellow. Through some of the port holes he could look at the world, seeing rainless storms rolling through its sky. Wind would probably be a hazard on the planet... inwardly he groaned because the random wind would throw long distance shots off, making him next to useless sniping without a still target and enough time. Good thing he brought his rifle and pistols then.

Metal clinked together as everyone readied with anticipation. Safeties were switched off, rounds chambered, and everyone shifted into a sprinting stance along the middle row. About another minute went by before the light of flak cannon shot lit up the space around one of the main ships. Their shields held and every ship moved in for the assault, speeding up and descending. Once they breached the atmosphere the sounds of battle finally reached them, booming anti air guns firing upon the militia battleships, shields on every ship taking damage. The dropship they were in shuddered for a second, but kept diving straight down to the battle. The atmosphere broke at the nose of the ship, fire working its way past the portholes. As the city came into view it slowed down and leveled out, only two stories above the ground.

A broad band announcement crackled to life on everyone's radios. It was Briggs for her usual pre assault briefing as usual. "Alright, listen up Pilots, this is a war of attrition to everybody except squad A. As for the members of squad A, you know where to meet up. Briggs out."

The light turned red as the back door opened, wind rushing in to greet them, and everyone rushed into Hell. They all jumped out the door and fell. The air rushed by his helmet before he hit the jump kit and landed behind the people that came before him. Without a word the pilots split off in their own directions for attrition while Max rushed off towards the edge of the city center to where the strike team should be rendezvousing. Max autonomously changed his music to fit the battle (Lead Zeppelin, Immigrant song) as he readied his weapon. In front of him was the buisness center of Chattan, complete with lots of skyscrapers and concrete structures. Perfect place for CQB. Maybe he could find a mastiff on his way over? A citywide siren rang out as the first shots of Militia artillery and infantry engaged IMC defenses.

The wind had muffled the sounds of war, but as more and more militia clashed against the IMC the once quiet town changed into a clamorous range of sound, the low thump of artillery, the energy of anti air cannons, and the countless small arms fire in between. He also thought he could hear a few titan weapons but brushed them off as none of his immediate concern. As he jogged down a few streets, he realized he didn't have much of a clue as to where he was or what was ahead of him.

Wind whipped past him as he grappled onto a nearby apartment building to scout. Once he reached the top, he watched as the artillery hit IMC installations, starting fires and causing havoc. Nearby he saw movement in the streets and pulled his DMR off to investigate. Scoping in, he saw about eight female civilians racing from a nearby store into another building. His eyes widened. Civilians! How could he forget about civilians? The IMC should've evacuated them before the militia even landed! He spotted a group of IMC grunts chasing after them as well. While he wanted to believe that their intentions were to protect them, he couldn't trust them all the same, so he jumped down after them just before he heard the screams.


	12. AN, a redo

I'll be completely honest. I've been slacking on a lot of things, and when it comes to this, it's no different. There are a lot of things with this story I'd rather change, more things I'd like to add, and things I wish I hadn't done. To be completely honest, this story was always half baked, done on the spot, without a proper timeline to follow. Not much more than a first draft, and I hope to change that now.

Soon I will be reworking the chapters already out, modifying them to better fit the story, or redoing them entirely. I'm not very happy with how it was done before. Don't worry too much, I'll keep the same characters, the same basic plot, but there are a lot of things I'd like to change, and I need to smooth the overall flow from chapter to chapter. I'll try to re-release them all at once when I'm done, but we'll se how things go.

I will work on new chapters, but I'd rather wait until I'm done redoing to post new stuff.


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